1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an input/output device which control data input/output operations from or to a recording device having a non-linear accessible recording medium, and an input/output management system.
This application claims priority of Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-170002, filed on Jun. 13, 2003, the entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein.
2. Description of the Related Art
A TV program to be broadcasted by a broadcasting station is supplied such that audio or video (hereinafter, referred to AV) data, which is a material for a TV program taken by TV video camera, is once recorded for later reproduction on a non-linear accessible server, then additional AV data for TV spot or the like is inserted into the AV data to edit the resultant AV data for TV broadcast, and the edited data is sent to a broadcast network. Such Recording and reproducing processes of AV data for TV broadcast are performed through a data recording/reproduction apparatus as disclosed in, for example, Patent Document 1 (Jpn. Pat. Appln. Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-149410).
FIG. 1 shows a configuration of the data recording/reproduction apparatus in which the above recording and reproducing processes are performed. For a recording process of externally input AV data in this data recording/reproduction apparatus 9, firstly, data input through a port 61A is compressed by an encoder 62, and the compressed data is then temporarily stored in a buffer memory 66. A data management unit 34A accesses a recording/reproduction unit 33 in the time slot period assigned thereto so as to transfer the data stored in the buffer memory 66 to the recording/reproduction unit 33 via an internal bus 30.
In the recording/reproduction unit 33, the transferred data is temporarily stored in a buffer memory 49, followed by being divided by a predetermined unit. The resultant data is finally stored in an HDD 45 with parity data being added to each of the divided data.
Next, for output of the data stored in the HDD 45 to outside of the apparatus, firstly, a data management unit 34B accesses the recording/reproduction unit 33 in the time slot period assigned thereto so as to make a request for data reproduction. Upon receiving the request, the recording/reproduction unit 33 allows a video disc controller 47 to read out the AV data and parity data stored in the HDD 45. The read out AV data and parity data are then subjected to error correction, and thus, the AV data is reproduced. After being temporarily stored in the buffer memory 49, the reproduced AV data is read out and transferred to the data management unit 34B via the internal bus 30.
The AV data is then transferred via a buffer memory 67 in the data management unit 34B to a decoder 63 in a data input/output unit 37B for data expansion, followed by being transferred via a switch 65 to a terminal 61B, through which the AV data is output to outside of the apparatus.
Further, for editing the AV data for TV broadcast by inserting additional AV data for TV spot or the like into the AV data, an edit unit 51 extracts at least one of the data input from outside of the apparatus and the data reproduced by the recording/reproduction unit 33, to execute the editing operation. The edit unit 51 uses a matrix switcher, an audio mixer, or the like included therein, or utilizes, as needed, functions of a special effect unit 39 to edit the AV data.
That is, according to the conventional data recording/reproduction apparatus, recording/reproduction functions, input/output functions and an edit function can be realized by a single apparatus.
In the case of creating a TV program including many flashbacks or cuts, it is necessary that AV data, which is a material for the TV program taken by a plurality of video cameras, be recorded on a large-capacity server for editing. In this case, a file system for managing record information such as a record start position, a record end position, or the like is required to manage the AV data as a file.
However, in the conventional data recording/reproduction apparatus, a file system is generally included in the apparatus as a component thereof. Further, since AV data input from a video camera is stored in a server incorporated in each data recording/reproduction apparatus, AV data recorded with a plurality of video cameras cannot be managed by a single server, leading to a difficulty in collectively editing these AV data.
In addition, the transfer bit rate between the data recording/reproduction apparatus and each server needs to be kept constant by using only AV data, which has a constant bandwidth, as an electrical signal exchanged with a server at the time of edit.